The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 33 points at 14,124, and dropped to a low of 14,110 in morning deals. Buying in select scrips like State Bank saw the index log gains in noon deals.

After hitting a high of 14,278 towards the closing bell, the Sensex finally closed with a gain of 176 points (1.25%) at 14,267. The BSE Bankex advanced over 2% (153 points) to 7413.

The BSE Metal, PSU and Teck index closed with gains of over 1.6% each today.

The market breadth was neutral - out of 2,692 scrips traded, 1,336 advanced and 1,313 declined today.

Index gainers & losers

State Bank led the rally after the government announced that it will be buying RBI's 59% stake in the bank at the market price by June. The stock zoomed nearly 6% (Rs 65) to Rs 1,203.

Hindalco gained nearly 4% to Rs 183. Bharti added over 3% to Rs 732. Tata Motors moved up over 3% to Rs 906.

Reliance Communications, NTPC and HDFC Bank gained over 2% each to Rs 474, Rs 146 and Rs 1,102, respectively.

Infosys moved up over 1% to Rs 2,268. Reliance was up Rs 11 at Rs 1,375. TCS, ACC, Gujarat Ambuja, ICICI Bank and ITC also finished with gains today.

Tata Steel, which had slipped nearly 11% yesterday, dropped over 1% to Rs 458. BHEL, HLL and HDFC also declined.

Volume & value toppers

Tata Steel was the most active counter with a turnover of Rs 203 crore followed by Shree Ashtavinayak (Rs 194 crore), Pyramid Saimira (Rs 180 crore), SBI (Rs 145 crore) and Tech Mahindra (Rs 107 crore).

IFCI topped the volume chart with trades of over 1.29 crore shares followed by IKF Technologies (1.05 crore), Harig Cranks (69 lakh), Tata Teleservices (63 lakh) and Shree Ashtavinayak (60 lakh).